Mt. Pleasant basketball stays red-hot

MT. PLEASANT — If one thing’s for certain, it’s that the Mt. Pleasant boys basketball team is scorching hot right now.

Since a loss to Burlington on December 20, the Panthers have yet to lose. With a 66-47 victory over Keokuk on Friday night and a 60-43 victory over Mediapolis on Saturday their streak is up to nine games.

With the pair of wins, the Panthers are up to 14-3 on the season.

In their matchup with the Chiefs, the Panthers led by just four after one quarter of action, 13-9, but the lead continued to grow throughout the night.

After a 19-13 second quarter by Mt. Pleasant, the lead at the half was 32-22.

In the second half, the Panthers continued to stay one step ahead, winning the third 12-11 and the fourth 22-14 for their seventh conference victory.

Aaiden Ashton paced the Panthers in scoring with 22 points and nine rebounds. Payton Hagans followed with 16 points and Noah Lange added 12 points. Owen Vansickel had 10 and Carter Amos six.

Against Mediapolis, it was more of the same.

The Panthers outscored the Bulldogs 15-13 in the first and 14-7 in second period to make it 29-20 at the break.

They followed the first half up with a 17-12 third and 14-11 fourth to seal their 14th victory of the season.

Hagans led on the evening with 18 points. Vansickel tallied 13. Ashton ended with 11. Nate Stroud had 10, Carter Amos five and Drake Anderson three.

Mt. Pleasant will return to the court on Tuesday with a road trip to Regina Catholic (7-10).